does UCI not have a deposit fee? It looks like they have a deadline though. Wait it out a little longer. If you deposit (whatever that means in UCI-verse) by the first deadline and wait it out there's a good chance they'll increase your scholly.

Schools are prioritizing their median candidates. If you're above a median or you're a flight-risk for some other reason (e.g. low interest) then they're going to low-ball your initial offer. This cycle is just as unpredictable for schools as it is for us. It makes the most sense for them to make the best scholly offers to the kids that 1. reinforce their status quo as far as medians and 2. are likely to enroll.

After the initial wave of kids withdraw, they'll have more flexibility to increase offers to higher-than-median candidates.

This applies even more to UCI. This is an extremely important cycle for them. Why? Because next Fall's applicants will determine UCI's inaugural rank. You guys (this cycle's candidates) will have a huge impact on next cycle's candidates. Your numbers will be the medians they see and will shape their perception of the school's trajectory as far as ranking. UCI is also trying to keep class sizes small..so they can't make big offers to large groups of applicants like other schools can.

The same thing is happening to us WUSTL'ers. Our current median is 166. So kids with 166 got 105k, 172+ mostly got 75k and some 170's only got 15k (total for three years). It sucks for high-LSAT splitters and above-median candidates but it makes sense from the school's perspective. Wait it out, express sincere interest, and things should improve.

Edit: FWIW I'll be very surprised if UCI doesn't rank T25 their first year. Pretty sure it'd be pretty easy for UCI to edge out Emory, W&L, or Alabama.

cusenation wrote:does UCI not have a deposit fee? It looks like they have a deadline though. Wait it out a little longer. If you deposit (whatever that means in UCI-verse) by the first deadline and wait it out there's a good chance they'll increase your scholly.

Schools are prioritizing their median candidates. If you're above a median or you're a flight-risk for some other reason (e.g. low interest) then they're going to low-ball your initial offer. This cycle is just as unpredictable for schools as it is for us. It makes the most sense for them to make the best scholly offers to the kids that 1. reinforce their status quo as far as medians and 2. are likely to enroll.

After the initial wave of kids withdraw, they'll have more flexibility to increase offers to higher-than-median candidates.

This applies even more to UCI. This is an extremely important cycle for them. Why? Because next Fall's applicants will determine UCI's inaugural rank. You guys (this cycle's candidates) will have a huge impact on next cycle's candidates. Your numbers will be the medians they see and will shape their perception of the school's trajectory as far as ranking. UCI is also trying to keep class sizes small..so they can't make big offers to large groups of applicants like other schools can.

The same thing is happening to us WUSTL'ers. Our current median is 166. So kids with 166 got 105k, 172+ mostly got 75k and some 170's only got 15k (total for three years). It sucks for high-LSAT splitters and above-median candidates but it makes sense from the school's perspective. Wait it out, express sincere interest, and things should improve.

Edit: FWIW I'll be very surprised if UCI doesn't rank T25 their first year. Pretty sure it'd be pretty easy for UCI to edge out Emory, W&L, or Alabama.

The question is: how long can UCI keep its T25 status once it gets there? We've seen Hastings drop drastically since the 90s and now Hastings has dropped to #38 from its all-time high at #23 IIRC.

sublime wrote:Honestly, in one of my less wise decisions, I was going to apply to UCI, had filled out the app, saw the mandatory Why UCI and instead of bullshitting it (which would have been easy as I have legitimate interest), was stubborn and said fuck them.

99.9luft wrote:honestly, as long as UCI's NLJ 250 ranking hovers around 20-30%, i really would not give a rat's ass where it ranks on US News.

Aren't the two (US news ranking & nlj 250 rankings) correlated?

sure they are, but NLJ are more employment-focused, hence why i respect them more.

NLJ 250 is far from a complete picture of employment. But I agree that employment should take priority over any concerns with ranking. However the USNWR ranking will matter for UCI a lot more as far as its impact on employment...remember that that the vastttttt majority of legal employers have had no exposure to UCI grads or students at this point. So the whole using-the-rankings-as-a-proxy-to-determine-quality effect will be heightened. They literally have nothing else to go on.

It's also much easier to maintain a ranking than to move up in them. Unless you pull a UIUC or Nova and cheat your way up and then get caught and tumble down....In any case, my love for schadenfreude will enjoy seeing USC and UCLA squirm as UCI becomes a more relevant threat

In today with 163, 3.68--biology major from the University of Florida. $20,000 per year renewable scholarship. Feels great to get in, but it still costs so much. I'll have to wait to hear from financial aid.

What with the rankings shake-up over the week, anyone got any idea what UCI's numbers are truly like? Seems like they got a good clerkship rate, but thats as a figure of %. It would be sad if most their graduates were actually being shuttled into document review or low-balled temp posts :\

ammanley wrote:What with the rankings shake-up over the week, anyone got any idea what UCI's numbers are truly like? Seems like they got a good clerkship rate, but thats as a figure of %. It would be sad if most their graduates were actually being shuttled into document review or low-balled temp posts :\

Everything I have read in the past year or so about it has been extremely impressive. I think I read that they had a 100% JD required placement rate, albeit it was only for 50 students. I have no idea what types of jobs they were but that data is likely available somewhere. Does Law School Transparency have a file on them?

It wasn't 100%, but the few that didn't get a job had some reason. Medical emergency, pregnancy, something like that.

So far as I could tell, they have no information other than medians on LST, and of course no employment info to be found on ABA or US News Compass. I don't doubt the inaugural class got great postings - from what I could find on Google, they have these numbers floating around various places:~13 NLJ firm associates~13 Article III clerksleaves about half the class unaccounted for, but if you assume another 13 or so public interest fellows that leaves less than a quarter of the class that could (potentially) be unemployed or shit-employed. So seems like they are doing pretty well.

The concern of course, is for classes (like ours) afterward, and the ones down the road in a few years. Seems like Irvine is doing the right thing in keeping class sizes small and from what I have heard, emphasizing an experiential curriculum. They can't completely turn the law school establishment on its head of course, and the 47k a year tuition is a testament to that. I do wonder about their geographical and salary placement, again, not reliably available info. Anyone know any current 2 or 3Ls that have had good things to say?

ammanley wrote:So far as I could tell, they have no information other than medians on LST, and of course no employment info to be found on ABA or US News Compass. I don't doubt the inaugural class got great postings - from what I could find on Google, they have these numbers floating around various places:~13 NLJ firm associates~13 Article III clerksleaves about half the class unaccounted for, but if you assume another 13 or so public interest fellows that leaves less than a quarter of the class that could (potentially) be unemployed or shit-employed. So seems like they are doing pretty well.

The concern of course, is for classes (like ours) afterward, and the ones down the road in a few years. Seems like Irvine is doing the right thing in keeping class sizes small and from what I have heard, emphasizing an experiential curriculum. They can't completely turn the law school establishment on its head of course, and the 47k a year tuition is a testament to that. I do wonder about their geographical and salary placement, again, not reliably available info. Anyone know any current 2 or 3Ls that have had good things to say?

From the class of 2012, I've found at least 9-11 graduates who are working in Southern California @ $140-160K.

Would love some discussion on this from prospective students and others alike.

edit: I should probably add something valuable myself. Personally, those clerkship numbers are what really attract me to the school. I would be very interested in undertaking a clerkship and out of the schools I could imagine attending, UCI is by far the best in terms of ability to place in a clerkship (mainly comparing it to USC which only places 6% into them). But I realize these numbers may drop by the time I am a 3L as the Dean's favors may subside.

Would love some discussion on this from prospective students and others alike.

edit: I should probably add something valuable myself. Personally, those clerkship numbers are what really attract me to the school. I would be very interested in undertaking a clerkship and out of the schools I could imagine attending, UCI is by far the best in terms of ability to place in a clerkship (mainly comparing it to USC which only places 6% into them). But I realize these numbers may drop by the time I am a 3L as the Dean's favors may subside.

good numbers. Seems people were fairly evenly distributed as far as firm size goes, then a bunch of clerks. As you say, I do wonder how these numbers will hold when we are 3Ls, particularly given our class will literally be twice as large.

Would love some discussion on this from prospective students and others alike.

edit: I should probably add something valuable myself. Personally, those clerkship numbers are what really attract me to the school. I would be very interested in undertaking a clerkship and out of the schools I could imagine attending, UCI is by far the best in terms of ability to place in a clerkship (mainly comparing it to USC which only places 6% into them). But I realize these numbers may drop by the time I am a 3L as the Dean's favors may subside.

Just to qualify those already pretty damn good numbers, at Coffee with the Dean last week (Chem hosts coffee with him one morning or afternoon every other week where you can ask him about ANYTHING. Sometimes it's just a few of us talking about the Lakers) Chem said that of those 3 who are "seeking employment," 2 got job offers and are currently employed. The numbers had to be reported on February 15 and they both found employment shortly after that deadline. The 1 who is still seeking employment had a family emergency after graduation and wasn't able to sit for the July bar. He took the February bar and is currently seeking employment.